Third Chances
by Sonic Serendipity
Summary: Hook leaves for patrol with Neal and comes back with Baelfire. Tiny wee Bae with patchy memory and big worshipful eyes and no he's not actually enjoying this, Swan, why would you say such a thing? [AU after 3a] [familial fluff]
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is set in an AU, where at the end of season 3a everyone went to the Enchanted Forest together. And they all lived happy-ish ever after. Ish! This story is intended as a slice-of-life kind of deal, more fluff than substance. Please let me know how you like it! I'm planning to add at least several chapters more. :)

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The woman vanished with a properly witchy cackle and a puff of noxious smoke, and Hook coughed and waved the smell away with his one good hand. "Well that was a lot of noise over nothing, wasn't it?" But when he turned to his companion expecting an agreement, he was instead greeted with the face of a small boy with a truly prodigious thatch of hair.

For once, he found himself speechless.

"What happened?" The boy asked, his voice shrill with youth and dismay. "I don't...I just...Captain?"

"I...yes, Bae. It's me." Even through his own shock he managed to dredge up enough wits to realize- "Now, hold on, lad! You're younger than I ever saw you, how the hell do you know who I am?"

Baelfire looked down at his hands, touched his chest and face like he doubted he was real. "I just...I remember." He looked up helplessly, those huge green eyes wide, and sat down in place, hugging his coltish legs to his chest.

"You remember! Well here's a pretty mess and no mistake." He turned slowly, looking over the whole clearing in case the witch (clearly more powerful than expected!) hadn't actually left, and growled to himself when he realized that there was little he could do even if she were still there. Hook cleared his throat and gathered his coat and his senses up as he followed the lad's example in sitting himself down in the dirt. "I shudder to ask, but...what all DO you remember?" Bae frowned, brow wrinkling and full lip jutting out as they still did in adulthood, and Hook felt a surge of dizzy affection for the boy.

"I remember coming to your ship...learning from you...hiding. Then I was very angry with you, and then I left." He looked up through his fringe. "Then I wasn't angry and I wanted to come back, but I couldn't."

"Ah. Most everything then." He rubbed at his eyes, hook scratching restlessly at the earth by his knee. "Though I hate to dwell on it all myself...in the interests of us all being on the same page, do you remember _why _you were angry and _how _you left?"

"I was angry because you loved my mother, and I left because the Lost Boys took me."

He smiled slightly and restrained himself from ruffling the boy's hair. "An over-simplification, but not untrue." He wanted to leave it at that, but found himself unable to; curse the Charmings anyway, and their absurd infectious eternal goodness. "To be honest, I think you were more angry because I caused your family to break up, and you left because I let them take you."

"But you didn't break us up. Not really." Bae's eyes met his squarely as he said it, and Hook nodded in reply with a curiously strong feeling of relief. "And...you had to let them take me. Or they would have killed you."

"I didn't _have _to let them take you, Bae. But yes. They would have killed me." Bae sighed as tension drained out of his frame, head drooping down to rest on his raised knees. Hook hauled himself to his feet and brushed dirt off his hand. "Well, while I believe there is more we need to talk about, I also believe it would behoove us to take this conversation somewhere a little less exposed." The boy raised his face up, and Hook gave into the urge to pat the soft young cheek. "Come on then, up you get."

There was, of course, a minor problem-as he realized when Bae stood by his (Neal's?) horse and looked up (and up, and up) with a deeply intimidated look. "This is mine?"

"Indeed she is," Hook said, and relented with a roll of his eyes. "Well, come on, then. You can share with me, seeing as you're more than a little bit little at the moment." He mounted easily, gathering the reins up and leaning over to offer Bae his hook. The boy grabbed it and between the two of them he was lifted up to sit before Hook on the saddle.

"Shouldn't I be behind you?"

"Eh, I wouldn't be using my hook to hold the reins, anyway," Hook said, and suited actions to words by wrapping his free arm snugly around Bae's middle. "Might as well give you a decent view. Not to mention harder to miss if you fall off, this way."

"I won't fall off," Bae said, and Hook had forgotten the way the lad said everything so earnestly. He pulled him a little closer and nudged the horse into movement.

They rode hard and fast for some distance, Bae clinging to the pommel as tightly as he'd ever clung to railings while getting his sea legs, and Hook sympathized but didn't slow until they were well away from the clearing and-one could only hope-the witch. When he felt it as safe as it was going to get, he slowed to an easy pace and nudged his passenger. "There now, we can slow up a bit. Now, Bae...do you know what happened to you?"

Bae twisted sideways to look at him and frowned again. "I...not really? There was a witch?"

"Aye, there was." He tried to give an encouraging look. "You seem to remember the whole of your time aboard my ship: what do you remember after that?"

"I don't...huh." Bae's eyes unfocused. "I remember...a long time. A very long time? Living in a cave...then in a strange place with enormous buildings...stealing things, a lot of things...my..." He stiffened and fell silent.

"Your father?" Hook finished softly.

"Yes," said Bae, tense and quiet. "He's...he's dead. Isn't he?"

"I'm afraid so, lad."

Bae snorted, but his voice was more weary than bitter. "Don't lie. You hated my father."

"Aye, that I did. But you loved him, and I take no joy in an event that caused you such pain." He hated seeing that look on his face, and added a little more lightly; "Besides, how big of a hypocrite would I have to be to ignore the fact that the man tried to change himself, for you?" Bae flushed, and dropped his head. "Hey, none of that," Hook chided, holding him closer.

"I'm sorry," Bae said, and straightened up. "So I was a man?"

Hook nodded, leaning down as they passed under a low-hanging bough and covering the boy's head. "Indeed you were, a man full-grown." He cleared his throat, wondering if he should leave it...but no. "Does the name Henry mean anything to you?"

"My son," Bae said promptly, then tilted his head back to look at him with a most odd expression on his face. "I have a son."

"That you do."

His nose crinkled up. "Who's the same age as me." Hook merely nodded, and he released a huge gust of a sigh as he slumped back against the pirate. "That's so...weird."

"On the one hand, yes. On the other hand- if I had another hand- it's actually surprisingly common in these parts."


	2. Chapter 2

Hook had been half-way hoping that Queen Snow would be the one he'd report to; she was often even more tiresomely good than the others, but she'd also spent enough time as a bandit that he could get on with her quite well. Alas, it was King Charming who greeted them, just back from his own patrol. The man was tired-looking and grubby, and yet still as shining and golden as ever, which was extremely aggravating. Charming nodded and said, "Captain. Back already?"

"Unfortunately? Yes."

The king frowned, looking him over for injuries or evidence. "Why unfortunately, what happened? Did something happen to Neal?"

"In a manner of speaking," he allowed, and turned to beckon to the lad just outside the doorway. Bae came around the carved stone frame slowly, hesitant as any peasant boy in the presence of royalty, and Charming's eyes softened instantly as they did for any small child. (Now if only he could ease up on looking at Emma that way life might be a little less stressful for Hook)

"Hey there," the king said gently. "Who are you?"

Baelfire squared his shoulders and stepped forward, and Hook pretended he wasn't pleased that the boy stopped at his side, half tucked behind him for protection. "My name's Bae," he said clearly. "Although...I think you usually call me something else?"

Hook smirked as Charming's face went white with shock. "Oh yes, mate. Care to take a guess as to what our magical target did to Neal?"

"She _shrunk_ him?" Charming shouted, almost squeaking on the middle word. Hook and Bae both snickered, although Hook did notice that the boy tucked himself even more behind his captain. Likely unnerved by the volume, which to be fair was usually a bad sign coming from such a powerful individual.

Fortunately, Hook knew Charming-knew David-and so was entirely unintimidated. "Not so much shrunk as...un-aged. Youthened?" He waved the thought away with his hook. "Either way, young Bae is a fraction the age of his previous self, with memories as clear as a choppy sea."

"His clothes shrank with him?" David continued, sounding outraged.

"Indeed. Rather obnoxious, now that you mention it, bit like showing off."

"I like these clothes," Bae said softly. "They're comfortable."

"Not going to take them from you, lad. Just as well you didn't end up in trousers that would fit two or three of you."

"Was adult me FAT?" he said, fascinated, and even Charming lightened up enough to laugh at that.

He would have responded to Bae's question, no doubt most cleverly as well, but they were all interrupted with a strident voice saying, "What the hell is going on? Someone was saying Hook came back without Neal!"

"Swan," Hook responded as she burst through the door, "as winning as ever."

"It's a little reassuring to find that even without phones or internet, gossip is still the fastest force in the world," Charming mused, and grinned at his daughter. "I thought you were going to disappear until you were clean enough to stand yourself?"

She really was in even worse state than the king, no doubt due to still not knowing her way around a forest half as well as those who had grown up there. Swan rolled her eyes and switched her glare from the pirate to her father. "Well it's not like there's plumbing worth speaking of here, is there? Have to wait an hour for people to boil water on a fireplace." The glare moved right back to Hook, which he enjoyed far more than he should. "Where the hell is Neal?"

He opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by Bae's clear voice. "Here, I suppose? I mean, that is my adult name, right?" He looked to Hook for reassurance and received a nod.

"Quite so. We have a whale of a tale to tell you, Princess."

"Don't call me princess," she muttered, but it was just out of habit. She sank down on a bench and stared.

"Apparently the witch is more troublesome than we'd realized," Charming said, sitting beside her and laying a hand on her shoulder. Swan shook herself out of her shock and sat up straight and stared some more.

"Wait, do you know me, ki-Baelfire?"

"Yes and no," he said gravely, and stopped, biting his lip. Hook took charge and swept the lad along to another bench so that they'd no longer be standing before the Charmings like criminals before a judge.

"Bae was explaining to us about his memories, aye, lad? It's a bit confusing for everyone, I'm sure...why don't you give it a go." He wrapped his arm over Bae's shoulders, and the trusting way the boy grabbed hold of his hook left him feeling distinctly mushy. "Tell us what you remember?"

"It's like..." Baelfire frowned as he groped for words, feet kicking in the air and hands twisting lightly around the hook. "When I was little-"

"-you're little NOW," Hook couldn't resist interjecting, and received an impressive glare for his troubles.

"When I was little," he continued testily, "I really liked to draw...but I was terrible at it. I could try to draw, say, a badger." His face lit up and his hands moved more and more freely as he got into his explanation. "The shape would be a little like a badger, and I would know what it was supposed to be, but no one would really think it looked like a badger. Although Papa always swore he could tell." He deflated suddenly as he realized who'd he mentioned, and Hook gave his shoulders a squeeze to show he wasn't upset.

"So what you're saying is, you have the...the shape of all your memories, and you know what they're about." Charming leaned forward and gave Bae a very kind look. "But you don't have any details?"

"Oh, yes!" Bae said gratefully. "That is about what it's like." He looked up under his thick fringe toward Emma, a hint of mischief sparking in his eyes. "I know Henry's my son, but I don't remember any...details."

All three adults winced and Emma planted her elbows on her knees and her face in her hands. "Well thank GOD for small favors," she said fervently. "This is just too weird, N...Bae. No offence."

"I'm not offended," Bae said, mischief going away in favor of that sweet sincerity of his. "I don't want things to be weird."

"Your detailed memories aren't there, but do you know if you've kept any of your skills? Like...using a sword, or a bow?" Emma inquired.

"And how is that important?" asked Hook.

"Well, it's a dangerous world. Never hurts to know how to protect yourself," Emma pointed out. "We probably need as much info as we can get so that when we consult...a magic user..." Charming rolled his eyes and she huffed at him. "FINE, when we consult _Regina_, she'll probably need details."

Bae was shrinking in on himself, looking overwhelmed, and Hook gave him a bracing pat on the back. "Well, why don't we test some of your skills, lad? See where we're at. Seems like you've forgotten how to ride a horse for one."

"I didn't forget," he replied indignantly, "she was just too big!"

"Reed is a pretty big mare," the king said comfortingly.

"You know his horse's name?" Emma sounded disbelieving.

"Well, you can take the boy out of the farm..."

"How about this," Hook said, and stood up. "Why don't we see how well you remember your letters. That's easy to check, eh? Now-" he gestured for Bae to rise as well and nudged him towards the door. "See that right turn at the end of the corridor? Just past that there's a stairway; go up to the next floor, then into the chambers two doors down. I happen to know that there is a fine collection of adventure stories in there." Bae looked up at him, then hesitantly back at the royal pair. Hook made a rude noise and gently pushed him out the door. "Oh, stop fretting, they won't bite. Now go find a book you fancy and I'll be along in a moment, fair enough?"

The boy turned around and gave a rough bow before trotting off, and moments later Swan said, "Hook!"

"Yes?" he responded brightly.

"Why the hell'd you send him to MY room?"

"Like I said, plenty of adventure books there. I'm sure your lad won't begrudge the loan." He considered making a more suggestive statement of some sort, but decided that with her father listening closely wasn't the best time. Emma often laughed at his comments in private, but with anyone else around she was blustery as a winter gale. "Besides, there's something I didn't want to mention with the lad present."

"Uh-oh."

"Oh yes. Good news and bad news. The good: I don't actually think the witch is very powerful. She immobilized us briefly, yes, but it wasn't by a spell at all but rather just a puff of powdered slowstone; and her exit by teleportation spell seemed extremely bumpy."

"If she wasn't so powerful how the hell...?" Charming asked, and Hook nodded, pointing at him.

"Aye, that would be the bad news. She seemed about to run when she looked at Bae—at Neal and said..." He tilted his head back and closed his eyes, trying to remember the exact words. "She said, 'Oh, but what's this now? There's a net around you, boy, a spell nearly full-woven and bright with intent. All it takes is a nudge,' then she made a gesture, and teleported away. It wasn't till the slowstone wore off fully and I could turn around that I saw Bae was as he is now."

"So, wait." Emma leaned forward like a hound on the scent, eyes narrowing. "There was already a spell on Neal? She just, I don't know...all the text was typed up and all she did was press enter."

"I don't know what that last bit refers to, but I'm going to say yes."

"So far it seems like good news," the king pointed out. "We're back to thinking she's a low-level threat."

Hook grimaced. "You might think so, but consider this; if she didn't really cast the spell, it's unlikely she could undo it even if we captured her." Swan dropped her head into her hands again and Charming massaged his temples like he was getting a headache. "Moreover," he continued, perversely pleased to be inflicting his unpleasant theories on someone else. "Who do we know that could have left this spell almost full-cast? Who is that powerful, and that subtle, and would have had a strong interest in a second-chances spell of this nature?"

Father and daughter both swore, and Charming restlessly got to his feet. "Rumplestiltskin!"

"That is indeed my fear," said Hook solemnly.

"Wait, hold on," Emma said, scowling more darkly than ever. "Are you saying you think Gold's alive?"

"No, that would almost be better. I'm saying that I think the only person who knows enough about this spell to do anything about it is dead." They all stood a moment and thought on that unpleasant prospect before Hook shook himself and gave a perfunctory bow to the two. "Well, as pleasant as this interlude has been, I have an appointment at Miss Swan's quarters." He smirked at Emma. "Now there's a phrase I will never tire of."

She made as if to punch him, but Charming stepped in front of her, rolling his eyes. "Come on, you guys, now is not the time." He then gave Hook a glare that could cut glass. "Not that there's ever a time I'll appreciate that kind of remark."

"Considering the number of inhabitants of this castle who have walked into you and Milady Snow in, ah, certain situations—" This time Charming didn't stop Emma's threatening step, and Hook laughed as he darted out the door.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: This one goes out to High-Functioning Hatter for continuing to be an awesome beta._

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Emma's quarters were much like his own in that they consisted of a sitting room with two adjoining chambers; in hers, two bedrooms, while in his was a bedroom he rarely slept in and a study he rarely entered. The main difference, of course, was that her rooms were about twice as big as his and filled with much higher-quality furniture besides. She was after all a princess, sharing quarters with a prince, much as she might like to forget it. Bae was in the middle of the sitting room, bent over one of young Henry's books, so intent he didn't even notice as Hook came in.

"Why are you sitting in the floor?" Hook asked, and he jerked and looked up guiltily.

"I'm just..." He winced. "I was afraid to sit on anything?"

"Ahh, worried you'll sully it with your non-royal backside?"

"I just don't want to get anything dirty," he answered helplessly.

"Well, how about this." Hook strode over to a settee, sat down on one end, then scooted his way across the length of it as Bae watched with a kind of scandalized amusement. Hook reached the far end, gave an extra wriggle for good measure, stood up slightly and sat down hard. He then gestured to the plush surface beside him. "Well, there you sit. Can't do any worse than my grubby piratical self has already managed."

Bae still looked a little horrified, but he was giggling as he joined him in the seat. "I do remember how to read," he said brightly once he'd got himself under control. "I think I'm doing okay, anyway."

"Well, don't let me stop you," Hook said grandly and leaned closer to look at the pages himself. "Go on, read aloud. I'll follow along and see how you do, eh?"

It was neither the best or the most original of works and Bae stumbled occasionally over words, but he wouldn't have moved for the world. Here was his own long-gone Bae, taking up the smallest of warm spaces beside him. The boy's light voice read the story aloud with incredible enthusiasm, and Hook found he was almost disappointed when an interruption made him fall silent. The interruption in question, however, brought another involuntary smile to his face (which had to stop or his reputation was going to be lost for good), for Henry Mills was welcome company.

"You aiming to catch flies, lad?" He asked, because Henry was staring at Bae with eyes and mouth both wide open.

"Dad?" Henry squeaked, and oh. Yes, that was a good reason for the shock.

"Have you been apprised of the situation, Henry?" Hook asked when Bae merely continued to stare in silence. The young prince shook himself and nodded.

"Uh, yeah. Grandpa told me. I had to see..." he wandered closer and tilted his head to the side. "You're really my dad?"

"More or less," said Baelfire softly. "Less at the moment, I guess. They told you about my memories?"

"They said you remember some stuff but not a lot of details," Henry answered promptly. "So, uh...well. Um, what're you doing, Dad?" He made a face, one that was echoed by Bae, and the similar expression made the family resemblance suddenly unmistakable. "That's weird."

"Yes. Do you...I mean, you can call me Baelfire, if you like. Or Bae."

Henry nodded slowly, then with more vigor as a grin bloomed on his face. "Yeah, ok. I can try that." Apparently already getting used to things—he really was a remarkably adaptable kid—he bounded over in a few steps and leaned over to inspect the book. "Oh, 'The Two Princes and the Chimera'! That's a good one. Are you reading it together?"

"Seeing how well my lessons from back in the day have stuck," Hook said lightly.

"He taught you how to read?" Henry said, eyes going wide again as he made himself comfortable beside his young father on the settee. "You didn't know before you were on the Jolly Roger?"

"I was a peasant," Bae pointed out a little drily. "Reading and writing weren't priorities."

"Oh, duh. I think I knew that." Henry smiled at him. "Want to read it together?"

The boys read alternate pages, laughing when one of them tripped over a word or mispronounced something, and Hook contended himself with the occasional snarky remark on the story that they both easily ignored. They took a half-hour to make it almost two thirds of the way through the story before their voices started to slow down and stumble more than ever. It's actually Bae who fell silent first, and Henry blinked owlishly as he looked at his pint-sized father, slumped against the pirate's side and out like a light.

"He really is a little kid, isn't he?" Henry said softly.

"More or less," Hook repeated Bae's earlier words. "Although in fairness to him, he has had the trying sort of day that would wear anyone out." He closed the book, moving it entirely into Henry's lap, and adjusted Bae carefully against his side as he detached his hook and slid it into a pocket in his coat. "Be a good lad and put that in the satchel, will you? And if you've another book you wouldn't mind lending out I'm sure he'd be grateful." Emma's son nodded and scurried into his room, though not without a waver or two as he rubbed the tiredness out of his eyes.

In his absence Hook also removed his rings for fear they'd catch in the lad's hair. Maneuvering slowly so as not to jostle too much, he lifted Bae up slightly with his good hand and worked the arm with the now hook-less stump under the boy's backside to lift him smoothly up. When Henry made it back he had Bae settled, weight supported on his bad arm while his working hand held the sleepy head to his shoulder. Henry was staring, and Hook himself stared a little as he saw the second book the lad had chosen. "You sure you're okay to give that up, lad?"

Henry started and looked down at his well-loved copy of 'Once Upon a Time'. "Oh, yeah. I mean, this one is TRUE. Since he forgot a lot it will probably be good for him to be able to read the stories." He put it in the satchel with the other book, and handed it over when Hook shifted Bae briefly to loop the bag's strap over his shoulder. "How didyou DO that?" Henry asked with wonder, looking from the couch to Hook and back again. The pirate rolled his eyes.

"I managed a ship full of pirates for three hundred years. If you think I can't handle one sleeping child I do believe I'm insulted."

"Kids are tricky, though," Henry said. "I was really scared to hold Queen Aurora's baby, and once Mom tried to carry me to bed and DROPPED me."

It was a great testament to his self control (yes, I do have that, Charming) that he didn't laugh at that fact as loudly as he might have. "Well, everything's practice. This isn't my first go-around with Bae here, if you remember, and he did fall asleep at the wheel once or twice back in the day."

"I remember," Henry said, with the earnestness that was prolific in all his family, excepting Emma. "He does, too. I'm glad he has you here so he doesn't feel all alone."

"Thank you, lad," Hook said softly, and briefly moved his hand from Bae's head to ruffle the young prince's hair. "Have a good night, aye? Give your mother some grief for me."

"No problem," he said, and they shared a conspiratorial grin before Hook left with his precious cargo.

His quarters were far from Emma's—pointedly far, he'd often thought—and by the time he'd arrived his arms were starting to tire. Bae was smaller than Henry but bigger than Robin Hood's little lad, and his limp weight was nothing to sneer at. The door was unlocked since he kept anything of real importance on his person or the Jolly, and he nudged it open with a huff of relief. He kicked it closed behind himself, wincing when Bae stirred, then stopped for a moment to think.

"Cap'n?" the young voice slurred. "Whassamatter?"

"You can decide, lad," he said softly. "You can be on the couch, which isn't terribly comfortable but would be yours alone, or you could bunk with me on the bed. More comfortable but more crowded." Bae murmured half a response, dropping off again, but Hook caught 'bed' somewhere in the mutter and laughed softly. "Fine, then, bunkmates it is."

He quietly let the satchel slide to the floor and entered the bedroom. He debated trying to pull down the covers before laying Bae down but decided he wouldn't manage that feat of balance. Hook was a pirate, not a juggler, thank you very kindly. Instead he just carefully placed him atop the covers, standing straight with a faint groan as he stretched out his arms. He moved as silently as possible about the room, doffing his regular garb in favor of simple sleeping clothes...for a long moment he debated leaving the harness on his left arm. He habitually left the hook off at night—no sense in becoming a one-eyed as well as one-handed pirate—but having his wrist stump bare in the presence of others made him feel terribly naked.

Eventually the desire for comfort won out and he shrugged out of the device, working the buckles with practiced skill, and hung it on its customary place on the bedpost. He slid under the covers and very briefly debated trying to wrestle Bae under them as well but decided not to risk it. The bedroom was warm enough, and no doubt the lad would rouse himself enough to worm under the quilt if he grew cold in the night.

He intended to go straight to sleep, he truly did, but it was no good. He instead sat up slightly, leaning a little over his bunkmate; in the moonlight from the window the lad looked positively angelic, thick lashes like ink strokes on his milky cheeks, hands tucked up under his chin as he slept curled up on his side.

"Entirely unfair," Hook said softly. With a herculean effort he refrained from kissing the child's head and instead shuffled back down to lay flat. "Bad form." And with the soft sound of Baelfire's breathing at his side he drifted off into sleep.

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_A/N Well, we've reached the end of what I already had written up. Further updates will likely be a bit slower! If you're liking it so far please do tell me, and why. Also, if you've any idea for scenes you'd like to see feel free to suggest—I might not use all ideas but I would appreciate them all the same! Thanks for reading~_


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